What website copywriting costs per page and why the price varies - Zephyra Studio

Website copy is usually priced per page, but that unit hides something more important than the figure itself: how much research sits behind the text. A service page meant to persuade a visitor to send an enquiry requires understanding the offer, the competition and the objections, while a short description page or an FAQ needs less. A per-page price can therefore vary widely within the same site, and that is not inconsistency but a difference in the work. Below is what copywriting actually covers, which factors move the price and how to work out how many pages of which kind you really need.

What you pay for with website copy

Website copy is not rewriting existing material into nicer sentences. Before writing, someone has to understand what is being sold, to whom, how it differs from the competition and what currently stops a visitor from buying.

The scope also includes short phases invisible in the final text: keyword research, a look at competitor pages that already rank, agreement on tone and structure, then writing, then revision. On larger sites there is also the work of aligning pages so the same sentence does not appear in five places.

It is often assumed that copy comes free with the design. That is one reason many sites look good and say nothing. The writer's work is easiest to spot by its absence: the page then describes the service in the same words as every competitor.

Why a per-page price is a poor unit for every page

A service page carries the buying decision, so it needs arguments, evidence and answers to objections. An FAQ or terms page carries information, and while similar in length it needs less research.

A blog page needs a topic, an angle, fact checking and a structure that answers a specific question. Search-driven text and campaign-driven text are not the same either: one needs a keyword and an answer to intent, the other a message read in a second.

The fair approach is therefore to group pages by the type of work and price them by group. When every page gets the same unit price, one of two things happens: either the strategic pages are underpriced and written quickly, or the informational ones are overpriced.

Factors that move the price the most

The first factor is how specialised the topic is. If the writer has to understand technical or regulatory material, time goes into conversations and verification, and that is a real cost even when it is invisible in the final text.

The second factor is where the information comes from. If the client has a clear offer, examples and data, the job is shorter. If the writer has to interview, hunt for examples and extract the differences, that is a separate piece of work.

The third factor is length and structure. A long page with sections, a table and an FAQ needs more than a short three-paragraph text. The fourth is the number of revisions, because every round after the agreed structure means realigning content rather than just fixing a sentence.

The fifth factor is the number of languages. Translation is not the same as writing in another language: translated text often reads translated, so languages you actually do business in need adaptation, not just translation.

What separates copy that produces enquiries from copy that fills a page

Copy that produces enquiries starts from what the visitor already knows and wants. Someone who arrived through a search for a specific service does not need an introduction to what that service is, they need answers on cost, process and timing.

The second sign is specificity. Price ranges, deadlines, how the work is done, what the client needs to provide and what happens after an enquiry. General sentences about quality and dedication do not help anyone decide.

The third sign is that the copy answers an objection instead of avoiding it. If the common doubts are that work will be late or that the service is not for a small budget, those doubts should be named and answered, because the visitor has them anyway.

How to work out how much copy you need

List your pages and mark which carry a decision, which carry information and which exist for search. The pages carrying a decision deserve more work than the rest, and that is where the investment returns fastest.

Assess how much you already have. If you have recordings of customer conversations, examples of your work and answers to the common objections, the writer starts with far better material than an empty page.

Then decide how many pages to launch now and how many later. Ten well-written pages outperform thirty shallow ones, and the cost spreads across periods.

For pages that exist mainly for search, our guide on writing SEO copy covers structure and common mistakes. For a range across the whole site, the price calculator gives a frame for scope, and we can plan the content and the copy together.

One example shows why splitting copy by page type is practical. A business has a twenty-page site, of which three pages produce almost all enquiries: two service pages and a page showing prices as a range. The rest are company text, terms and descriptions rarely read to the end. Spread the budget evenly and the three pages that matter get a third of the attention they deserve while everything else gets too much. Spread it by importance and those three are written thoroughly, because that is where the buying decision happens, while the rest are filled in neatly and improved later. The same money, two different outcomes. That is why the first question is always which pages carry the decision, not how many pages the site has.

Source

Key takeaways

• A per-page price hides a difference in research that matters more than the figure.
• Pages carrying a decision need more work than informational ones, even at similar length.
• Price drivers are topic complexity, how available the information is, length, revisions and number of languages.
• Copy that produces enquiries is specific and answers objections rather than avoiding them.
• Ten good pages outperform thirty shallow ones.

Conclusion

Copy is the one part of a site the visitor reads literally, so weak text cannot hide behind good design. The question worth asking is not what a page costs but which pages carry the decision and how much research they need. Get those written properly, and the rest can follow later.